Three types of fun

There are three types of fun. I heard this on Countryfile (don’t judge me) but I did not catch the presenter’s name.

Type 1 fun is something that is fun all the time, from start to finish, fun now and fun later. Type 2 fun however is something that doesn’t seem like fun at all yet afterwards gives you that smug sense of satisfaction that you have achieved something. No fun now but some fun later. There might be a type 1.5 which is mostly full on fun but has its bad bits and then there is type 3 fun which is just rubbish and not fun at all. No fun now and no fun later. The most you may get is some pleasure out of bragging about it later but that is it

Surely this means that there are just 2 or 2.5 types of fun. Either way it is an interesting (and fun) way of looking at life. Fun is a difficult concept to define. One man’s fun is another man’s tiresome.

Making a cake, for me is type 1 fun. I like the alchemy while mixing all the ingredients together and I like to eat the outcome. Most people do yet for many baking is type 2 fun. Cutting the grass is definitely a type 2 though. It is a complete pain pushing the mower backwards and forwards yet I like the way the grass looks afterwards. Cleaning the windows is without a doubt a type 3 however. As soon as you have finished it starts to rain and they are as dirty as they ever were. I can’t even brag about it or claim some credit for having at least attempted them.

Not everything in life can be fun and quite often anything that is truly worthwhile is hard yet it is interesting that fun can be obtained in retrospect. The trick is to balance the types of fun you have. All type 1 will be hedonistic nightmare which you will soon get sick of. You can have too much fun, while all type 3 will make Jack a very dull boy.

Remember this.